GEA builds a scalable IIoT connectivity platform for digital solutions

GEA is a globally operating DAX-listed group with an exceptionally broad product portfolio, ranging from complex process plants to individual valves. Accordingly, the products, devices, machines, data and technical maturity levels of the individual business units are highly heterogeneous.

The project goal was to drive industrial digitalisation, data-driven services, and future innovations such as data analytics or AI across the group. Therefore, GEA required a stable foundation for all business units: high-quality and consistent data, standardised interfaces, a robust architecture for data flows from edge to cloud, and a connectivity platform that integrates both new installations and legacy equipment.

GEA’s focus was on the group’s ability to provide a structured IIoT connectivity platform in a high-quality manner and to use it in a scalable way.

As digital initiatives evolve over time, isolated solutions often emerge across different business areas. This is a common challenge faced by many decentralised industrial organisations. The result is a proliferation of integration approaches, proprietary data models, and individual implementations, leading to significant integration effort for every new use case.

Across the industrial sector, such fragmentation makes scaling difficult. Innovation becomes slower, more costly and harder to manage. In addition, inconsistent security approaches can increase operational risk and complicate compliance with growing regulatory requirements. At the same time, building and operating a scalable IIoT infrastructure requires specialised expertise in connectivity, security, and platform engineering – capabilities that are in high demand and not always readily available.

Against this backdrop, GEA deliberately chose a different path. From the outset, it was clear to GEA that building a group-wide IIoT platform is a strategic investment in the company’s future digital transformation. Accordingly, the collaboration with Zühlke was designed as a long-term partnership. The collaboration has now been ongoing for more than three years, with the shared ambition of creating a resilient foundation for industrial digitalisation across the entire group. 

Together with Zühlke, GEA deliberately opted for the hybrid approach of ‘buy and integrate’, based on proven cloud and open-source technologies, to avoid dependencies and create an Industrial IoT platform that can be adapted to the needs of a heterogeneous group over the long term.

The IIoT platform is deliberately designed as part of an existing system of systems and integrates seamlessly into GEA’s IT and cloud landscape, rather than replacing it.

The solution enables:

• Reliable connectivity across hundreds of different products.
• A clear reference architecture on which business units can build their own use cases.
• Maximum extensibility using open-source technologies.
• Efficient onboarding via user-friendly mechanisms (e.g. wizard-based integration).
• Consistent orchestration of data from edge devices to the cloud.

Focus is placed on extensibility and futureproofing. By using open-source technologies, GEA remains technologically independent and creates a platform that can be used and further developed across the group in the long term. 

Zühlke supports GEA as a strategic partner, contributing responsibility for architecture, quality, and the long-term stability of the platform. Working in close collaboration with GEA, an interdisciplinary set-up brings together experts from both organisations to align decisions, share knowledge, and drive implementation efficiently. Zühlke’s responsibility goes far beyond pure implementation.

The combination of deep engineering expertise, experience with highly complex transformation initiatives and strong business understanding provides the stability required to remain effective in a dynamic group environment. Decisions are made collaboratively and are consistently assessed in the context of scalability, governance, and long-term value creation.

In addition to technical implementation, Zühlke brings the necessary professionalism at platform and programme level. Clear architectural principles, structured decision-making frameworks, thorough documentation, and active risk management help to keep complexity under control and to continue developing the project in a focused manner despite a growing scope.

This combination of engineering excellence, flexibility, and partnership on equal terms creates the foundation for a scalable IIoT platform that enables GEA to drive industrial digitalisation across the entire group. 

The IIoT platform that has been established provides a shared foundation that enables business units to create sustainable value through:

• Faster rollout of new use cases, as business units build on an existing, standardised data foundation.
• Reduced complexity and lower costs through central infrastructure instead of parallel in-house developments.
• Technological independence through the consistent use of open source.
• Futureproofing as a foundation for analytics, AI, predictive maintenance, and digital services.

At the same time, the platform provides a standardised basis for business units to address regulatory requirements (e.g. EU Data Act, CRA, governance, security, sustainability) and future governance topics in a standardised manner.